(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to basketball training devices, especially to a basketball return apparatus for use by a player in practicing field goal and free-throw shooting to improve shooting accuracy ultimately measured by a player's scoring percentage and the ability to return the ball to various locations on the court.
(2) Description of Related Art
Many, if not most basketball players prefer to remain at one position at a time on the court during shooting practice. This is not due to athletic indolence but is a result of rather sound judgment about what is required of performance setting events in order to learn reliable shooting habits.
For a player's acquiring the motor skill of basketball shooting accuracy, what is required for most efficient response acquisition would be the maintenance of relatively constant performance setting events during what is essentially a trial and error process of learning a perceptual motor skill congruently involving the coordination of body, mind, and spirit in the rhythm of shooting.
Ideally, for most efficient habit formation, a ball should be returned to a player in a reliably similar manner which minimizes events setting up a player's extraneous arrhythmic motions such as bending, stretching, stumbling, or chasing for the ball and maximizes events setting up his shot oriented rhythm of catching, aiming, and shooting the ball.
Heretofore, a variety of basketball returns or ball retrieval devices have been proposed and implemented for redepositing a basketball with a player.
One such apparatus, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,340 to Jenkins et al., comprises a vertically extending chute projecting upwardly from the base, positioned on the floor, for receiving balls, and a horizontal ball collection and dispersion tube, with a power-operated plunger mounted in the base swinging about a vertical axis, for receiving and directing balls to various on-court locations. There are problems because of the limitation imposed by the apparatus requiring an external power supply, not easily accessible indoors without additional equipment such as power extension cables with the appropriate type of plug for an available electrical outlet, and typically useless outdoors where such outlets are normally unavailable without provision of additional equipment such as a gas-powered electrical generator and fuel to power it. Without use of a truck, users have the added problems of how to transport and where to store such a large type of apparatus when not in use. The device is also expensive.
Another simpler apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,814,421 to Spier, Jr. and includes a lightweight chute with a curved body portion of substantially shape-retentive flexible material nesting in a circumferentially notched ring and angularly adjustable by fitting its mating tooth into different notches of the ring which is attached to the backboard or suspended by hooks from the hoop. As with other apparatus of the type which depend from the hoop, there are problems with the deviation in the regulation size foramen of the hoop as a consequence of attachment of the apparatus's hooking members. No longer are users assured that the encumbered goal assembly will respond in a normal manner to the impact of a ball striking it. Attachment to the backboard, while resolving this problem, leaves users with the prospect of having to alter the integrity of the backboard in an adaptive way to accommodate the attachment means of the apparatus. Yet another problem is that, even when attached to the backboard, the user's view of the hoop and net is substantially obscured by the apparatus, again resulting in the goal assembly being significantly altered in its standard appearance as a regulation goal.
More significantly, users of the Spier device have a problem with the fixed lateral run such apparatus afford the ball whereby its momentum can deliver it with similar efficiency only to a fixed range of different positions on court. While in position to utilize the apparatus near the goal, players find it impossible to take shots from positions progressively farther from the goal without equally progressive loss of the apparatus's efficiency returning the ball. Thus, a player stepping back to shoot from a somewhat further position experiences increasingly inconvenient setting events in terms of the speed and height of the ball's delivery.
Yet another lightweight apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,506 to Caveney and includes a main back frame which is detachably mountable onto a backboard of predetermined vertical dimension and having a pair of side frames outfolding to a position both normal to the main back frame and above and below and alongside the hoop. Flexible netting chute means covers the frames and extends downwardly to attach to means flush with a user's feet on the floor for returning the ball to a player at the free-throw line.
The Caveney apparatus also has problems with accommodability, enabling use only with a backboard of predetermined vertical and thickness dimension, and lacking ease of mountability on the variety of different popular backboards having various other measures of these dimensions particularly the goal support assemblies to which they are attached.
Another limitation of the Caveney apparatus is that the ball is deliverable only to a player on the straightaway from goal to foul line and positions on right and left court are without delivery service. In addition, during normal use of the apparatus, with both side panels typically outfolded for free-throw shooting, a user desiring to practice shooting from substantially right or left court finds both his view and the ball's access path to the goal substantially limited.
More importantly, the Caveney apparatus delivers the ball at the player's feet, rolling rather than bouncing it to a player standing at or beyond the foul line. This setting event necessitates the player bending over and stretching down each time the ball returns to pick it up. Straightening up to resume his normal shooting stance, the player then has to reset himself to restart his shooting rhythm for the next shot. Players, accustomed to receiving the ball in the course of the game on a vigorous bounce, have a problem with the setting event of receiving a ball on a roll because it causes an interruption of their shooting stance with each practice trial and never allow them to establish a shooting rhythm catching, aiming and shooting the ball.
It is an established principle of the psychology of motor skill learning that response acquisition is enhanced to the extent that performance setting events are similar from trial to trial during practice. Most players, therefore, would find it desirable to have a training device which would facilitate this learning principle and could deliver the ball to a player in a reliably similar, efficient, and convenient fashion.
Other patents of interest are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,765,269 to Hatley; 3,917,263 to Wiley; 4,579,339 to Grimm; 4,291,885 to Cohen; 4,720,101 to Farkas; 4,697,810 to Mathison; 4,706,954 to Kershaw; 4,714,248 to Koss; 4,678,189 to Koss; 3,233,896 to King; 4,667,957 to Joseph; and 3,776,550 to McNabb.